In The 1920s, Zhu Xiaoju Film Activity Research

Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies literati were quite active in the filmdom in the 1920 s,one representative of whom was Mr.Zhu Shouju with bountiful articles.Mr.Zhu witnessed the first key decade in the Chinese film history by founding and operating film companies,writing plays and directing films.This article explores Zhu Shouju's contribution with twenty-plus film works to the genre establishment of the early Chinese films through a thorough historical textual research and speculative exploration on his film activities.The first chapter discusses the possibility of Zhu Shouju's entering the filmdom from two aspects: personal advantages and social ecology,which had an unneglectable influence on his following film activities.The second chapter explores his special contribution to the exploration and expansion of the early film genres as both a Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies literatus and an early film practitioner by investigating his film activities in three fields: founding and operating film companies,editing film magazines and making film comments,and writing plays and directing films.The third chapter analyzes the establishment and development of film genre awareness from two dimensions—narration styles and theme categories,which is surely based on the previous two chapters.In some sense,the study on Zhu Shouju's film activities in the 1920 s helps to expand the research on film history and can also serve as a window to understand the early films.